This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
In a typical transaction using a credit or debit card, a card holder wishing to complete a transaction (or make a payment) provides a Primary Account Number (PAN) (or card number) together with other card details (such as a card expiry date, card code verification (CCV) number etc.) to a merchant at a point of sale terminal. The merchant transmits the card number and the details to an ‘acquirer’, i.e. a financial institution that facilitates and processes card payments made to the merchant.
The acquirer then transmits an authorization request via a payment card network to an issuer or payment provider of the card used to make the payment.
The payment provider processes the received request and determines whether or not the request is allowable. If the issuer determines that the payment request is allowable, an authorization response is transmitted via the payment card network to the acquirer and initiates the transfer of the payment amount to the merchant's account. Responsive to receiving the authorization response from the issuer, the acquirer communicates the authorization response to the point of sale terminal. In this manner, a card number may be used to effect a card payment to a merchant.
However, there are many situations in which the processing associated with effecting the payment results in unacceptable delays for a user and/or merchant wishing to effect a payment.